ADVENTURES IN SINGLENESS AND MISADVENTURES IN DATING

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Saffron & Sassafras, the Glitter Lions

Quirky friends are the best. You can be your own quirky self around them, and together your joint weirdness ceases to be weirdness and is transformed into pure awesomeness instead.

I have a dear friend like this – Sophia. We probably never would have met if we didn’t work for the same company. She’s twenty years older than I am, was raised in Bangladesh, lives across town, practices Buddhism and has two daughters nearing college age. We are of different generations, come from different backgrounds and are in different seasons of life. But she’s quirky, and I adore her.

A few years ago, we took a business trip together to San Diego. On that trip, she gave me lots of advice, like that I should marry Matt Bomer (who turned out to be gay) and that I should name my first child Sassafras (after a street name we passed in our taxi on the way to the airport). Clearly she gives questionable advice (questionable but hilarious).

Today I read an article about the best Hipster baby names, and at the top of the list was Saffron. Naturally, I sent the article to Sophia and said simply, “I read this article today and thought of you!” I knew she’d know what I was referencing.

Sure enough, though we haven’t talked about it in years, she wrote back: “Saffron….lol….I still remember this….we were in San Diego and drove by Sassafras St….”

I’d told Sophia earlier this week that lately I feel like a lion pacing in a cage, so she added in her email, “Your description of Lion in a Cage….that is exactly how I feel some days, but more like a Glitter Lion.”

She replied with encouragement and better advice than she’s given me in ages: “Do not — (I repeat)— DO NOT change the essence of who you are….you are wondrous and magical all in one package… Be who you are. But if you cannot be who you are right now, be a Glitter Lion until you can again. RAWR!”